Washington recently issued new sanctions against the Venezuelan state airline, CONVIASA, and Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, in the hope of severing some of Venezuela’s ties to Russia as one of the authoritarian Maduro government’s major financial supporters and political allies. Rosneft has had a major hand in sustaining Venezuela’s petroleum industry, which insulates the state from collapse, protecting it from the worst fallout of previous U.S. sanctions. However, the United States cannot expect this latest round of sanctions to deter Vladimir Putin’s alliance with the Maduro government. Given the consistency of Moscow’s support for Venezuela in its current dire straits, now including in defense matters, the U.S. can count on having a major security risk in South America for the foreseeable future. I have written more about this topic here.
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